78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



number of spectators would exert himself to his utmost, and 

 that he could not mow half a day at the same rate, and it is 

 certain that he was far better as a mower than the average of 

 farm laborers, while at the same time it is evident from the 

 above-named speed, that the team with the machine could work 

 pretty steadily. It is, therefore, fair to state the comparative 

 quantity cut by the machine in this experiment, as five times 

 greater than that cut by the mower. That is to say, one man, 

 a pair of horses and a machine, would cut as much in a half 

 day as five men, or a pair of horses and a machine equal to 

 four men. Now, as to the work performed, it was admitted by 

 all that the machine cut much the best ; and when it is con- 

 sidered that with the moivers, one man is required to every five 

 to do the spreading, we have to credit the machine with another 

 man's labor in spreading, or a machine and horses equal to 

 five men instead of four, or including the driver, machine and 

 horses, equal to six men. This supposes, we will say, a half- 

 day's work. The cost of the six men for the half-day in haying, 

 in New England, would be at least four dollars and a half. 

 The cost of a driver would, at the same rate, be seventy-five 

 cents for the half-day. The keep of the horses, at seventy-five 

 cents per day, would l)e equal to thirty-seven and one-half cents, 

 and allowing for the use of the machine a dollar a day, which 

 is, perhaps, a fair charge, we have, for the cost of machine labor, 

 c'ne dollar and sixty-two and one-half cents, instead of four 

 dollars and a half, or, adding a dollar more for the interest on 

 cost of horses, and we have two dollars and sixty-two and one-' 

 half cents to compare with four dollars and fifty cents, the cost 

 of men. 



In another instance, on the farm of Mr. Hovey, of Sutton, 

 reported by the same committee, where a four feet eight inch 

 cutter-bar was used, instead of five feet, the horses weighing 

 1,820 pounds, instead of 1,968 ; the trial was made on a piece 

 similar to the last, 4 rods by 20, having a burden equal to 2,700 

 pounds of hay to the acre, the machine made 17 swaths, averag- 

 ing '^Y^^ feet to each, mowing tlie half acre in 19 minutes, at a 

 speed, including turnings, of ^y^q miles an hour, cutting 

 1,146^^^ square feet of grass a minute, including the turnings. 

 A good mower, on the same field, cut a swath 20 rods, or 330 

 feet long and Q\ feet wide, or 2,145 square feet, in 7^ minutes, 



